One in 200 men alive today is a relative of Genghis Khan

An international team of geneticists have found an astonishing statistic; one in every 200 men alive today is a relative of Genghis Khan. These men have the same male Y chromosome as the great warlord Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan conquered many countries during his reign (between 1162 and 1227) and in this campaign he captured many beautiful women and fathered many children on the way. According to on Persian historian, that within a century of Khan’s birth and his extravagant mating habits had resulted in more than 20,000 children. And now his descendants make about 8% of the men in Central Asia after a genetic study of these men.

Dr. Chris Tyler-Smith and his team from Britain, Italy, China, and Uzbekistan, took tissue samples from 2,000 men from Central Asia and studied their Y chromosome, the genetic code that confers maleness and is passed from father to son.

'Y chromosomes belonging to different men vary slightly. One in every 5,000 DNA units is not the same,' said Tyler-Smith. 'But when we looked at our results, we found a huge group that did not show any differences. We were absolutely amazed.'

Another unique finding the team discovered is that the geographical spread of possessors of the chromosomes matched exactly the conquest of Genghis, which stretched from Mongolia, China and to the Middle East. They discovered that all of these men shared a common ancestor in Genghis Khan.

'There are only two ways a single Y chromosome can make such a mark on a population,' Tyler-Smith said. 'The chromosome could in some way confer its owners with some biological advantage.

The Mongolian armies of Genghis Khan were notorious when they plundered foreign nations; they divided the spoils amongst them after a victory but reserved the beautiful women for Genghis Khan.

There is a community in Pakistan, the Hazaras, who used to claim that they were the direct descendants of Genghis Khan, but were ridiculed for this claim for a long time. But this research team was able to confirm their claim; the Hazaras are descendants of the famous Genghis Khan.